Saturday in the park

Today was a fun day. We were able to stay in town, so after a relaxing morning, we ventured out to explore Cooke'vegas. We played putt-putt and the new mini golf range. It looks pretty hokey from the road, and I make fun of the sign that says "Challenging, but fun!" but it was actually pretty fun...and pretty challenging, at least for me. I was impressed. Someone has put a lot of work into it. Jack was very well behaved while his mommie and daddy played around. Then we decided to wander around and explore some neighborhoods and gaze at homes for sale. Along the way we discovered a park "Cinderella Park". There were baby swings and a cute playground, so we decided to give them a try. We only took about a million pictures (which will hopefully be up soon, since I just went to the drug store and had them put on cd) and videos of him swinging. He loved the swing, and wasn't too fond of the slide or the rocking horse. I'll add more pictures within the next day or so, be sure to check back! Afterwards we deicded to treat ourselves to a meal at our new favorite restaurant "Royal House of Thai" or "HOT" as the sign says. I ALWAYS get Pineapple Fried Rice and Josh likes to get the Pad Thai with tofu. YUM!

baby knee bends

He loves to pull up on his exersaucer and play. This is his latest trick. He's not doing this because he's unsteady, he's just moving around and being silly. Just after this video was taken I started tickling his little legs when he'd bend down, and he would straighten up and laugh hysterically, and then stick his bootie out again. He's so much fun! Again, sorry for the quality, one of these days we'll be able to get our computer fixed and I can put up all the great videos from the camera, and not these not-so-good ones from the camera phone. Granny Ruthie went to a consignment sale today at her church, and found what sounds like some REALLY fun toys for him to stand up and play with. I can't wait to watch him explore these new things too. Sometimes I wonder if I don't interact with him enough, because I just love to sit and watch him explore and learn about new things and I don't want to get in the way. It's just fascinating.

a boy and his dog (or is it a dog and her boy??)

I know some people might get a bit grossed out that we let our dog give "kisses" to our baby, but we are just so pleased that they get along...but we do try to limit their "affection" for each other! After several months of pulling and yanking on her ears and fur, he's gotten really good at gently petting her and playing with her tags on her collar. They love each other so much, that I'm pretty sure that Jack's order of preference for a playmate is 1)Maggie, 2)Daddy, 3) Mommie. Now that he is crawling and pulling up, she has a harder time getting away from him, but as I discovered the other day, even that is a fun game to her. I think she's just trying to play "hard to get"

Maggie was chewing on one of her chew toys and Jack decided he wanted to play with it too, so he scoots over to her and reaches out for her toy. She wasn't in the mood to share, so (without any growl or snarl or anything) she hops up and moves across the room. He quickly scoots over to where she has relocated, and tries again to "share" the toy, and she hops up again and goes to another spot...and he follows. This happened or 5 times, all while I was watching very closely. Finally I swooped down to distract him (even our patient dog has her limits...) and we sat down to play. She looked up, trotted over to where we were, and started chewing on her toy right next to us. Then she hopped up (leaving behind the toy in question) and went to get an almost identical toy and brought it over to where we were sitting, as if to share. I think its just the sweetest thing!

They also have their own little version of fetch/keep away that's really cute to watch too. As soon as I can, I'm dying to post so pictures of Jack finding some of Maggie's "hiding places"

My baby can sign...I think...

Not sure how well this video will show up, since it was taken with a cell phone. Hopefully our computer will be fixed within the next few weeks (or maybe we will just give in and get a new one...) and I can post some of the videos and pictures I've been taking with the regular camera. Until then, we just have to make due with a borrowed computer and images from the cell phones. :( I have been trying to get Jack to do a bit of baby sign language, mostly all we've worked on in "MORE" and "ALL DONE" For weeks I would work on it with him at meal time, and he would get SOOOO MAD at me for pausing and trying to teach him the sign for more and "requiring" him to do it. Then all of a sudden one day, he started "clapping" his hands together, and we took it and ran with it. I'd say he will do the "more" sign you see here about 25% of the time, but when he doesn't do it, we do it for him with his little hands. I'm a little nervous, because I've heard several people say they've heard baby sign language makes babies talk later, but I'm hoping that since I'm only planning to teach him a few signs that help him make his needs known, like more, all done, drink, eat, sleep, etc, that it won't be a problem. Anyone have any advice or insight? Sorry the video is so grainy.

over and done with

with all the "drama" with our house and soon thereafter with our computer (which we forgot to bring to Steve this weekend...too busy packing up the pack n play and dog crate etc...) I have forgotten to share....WE ARE NO LONGER HOMEOWNERS!!! Strange to be celebrating that, isn't it? Here are a few lessons learned along the way:
1)If building/buying new and given the chance to purchase certain upgrades....DO IT, if possible. I still think that one reason ours didnt sell as quickly as others was that we didn't have much to make it "stand out" like hardwoods or a fence, etc...all things we had contemplated when purchasing. 2) Selling a home can be EXPENSIVE....thank goodness the value of our home increased in value, because if we hadn't made any profit from the sale, we couldn't have afforded to keep the house. Between realtors commissions and paying some of the buyers closing costs (apparently that is in vogue now...wierd...) it became a pricey endeavor. 3) always opt for more boxes and the bigger moving van, and more helpers....because you always have WAY MORE than you ever imagined and most importantly 4) It's always in the Lord's timing, which is NOT the same as our timing.

Happy 9 Months!!

We went to his 9 month check-up yesterday. I'm not sure why, but we ended up heading to the Dr. office an hour EARLY (very unusual for me) . I almost turned around to find something else to do (who wants to wrestle with a baby in a dr. office where there is nothing (safe) to play with and we are NOT allowed to play on the floor as per our resident NP's orders....). Josh assured me they would try to work us in....thank goodness for connections and we got to wait in Josh's office instead of the waiting room. Dr. C is NOTORIOUS for running behind, so we finally left the office 2 HOURS after we got there....thankfully Jack was a good boy and other than wearing me out, he behaved beautifully.

He is 30 inches tall/long ("tall like his daddy" according to the Dr.) , 21.4 pounds (75th %) , and his head diameter is 18.25. He is responding to his name, verbalizing mamamamama, babababa, etc (still doesn't know what they mean...) and although he is not waving "bye-bye" he does "gimme 5" most of the time when asked. Praise God for Healthy Babies!!!

ps-this picture was taken after he found one of his little bitty baby passys and decided to chew on it in a different way. :)

sad sick computer

our computer is sick. Yesterday it all of a sudden came up with some warning about "spyware" and "fatal errors" and after 4 hours of virus scanning and several phone calls to our IT support (my step-dad Steve) we're still not up and running. Just wanted to let you know that there will likely not be a whole lot of blog updates since I have to beg Josh to bring home his work laptop and wait patiently for him to finish his work and check his fantasy football stuff before I can get a turn. :) Keep praying for our upcoming closing...as of right now it is set for this wednesday.... hopefully it will actually happen this time!!!!!!!!!

my talented husband...

I'm so proud! I've heard about his bass guitar playing skills, but have never witnessed them first hand.....lately he's been playing around with Bertie's old acoustic guitar and I checked out a book of guitar lessons from the library. How cool that his first song is one of my favorites. This seems like a much better way to unwind after a hard day at work than just sitting around vegging in front of the tv. My next request is for lullabies for Jack :) Now where can we get a keyboard so I can dust off my long neglected (self-taught) piano skills? I smell Christmas present....

He must be part cat

While we were unpacking some boxes Josh found a laser pointer and started taunting Jack with it. I didn't grab the camera in time to show Maggie and Jack both playing with it...by this time she had gotten bored. Look at those crawling/wriggling skills! I'm learning from comparing notes with other moms that all babies progress differently (I know, DUH! right?) Some moms have told me that their babies "army crawled" for only about a week, some said it lasted for 4 months or more...several have described what he is doing pretty well, using both arms, but only 1 leg and mostly the big toe on his leg. Josh is afraid Jack's going to end up with "turf toe". I'm just waiting to see if his right leg ends up really muscular compared to his less used left leg :)

Bertie and her Baby Jack

This child just loves to look at himself. Here he and Bertie are gazing at each other in

the mirror.

something caught his eye..

after our pseudo-closing on Friday we went to eat at Backyard Burger. Jack was sitting in a high chair, and caught sight of a ceiling fan or light or something. He kept leaning his head waaaaay back to look at it over and over again. I thought it was funny. Looks almost like a baby yoga move or something.